Focusing on the moment can make you feel calmer and improve your quality of life.

These days it seems difficult to concentrate on just one thing at a time. While you are reading a book, you are probably receiving WhatsApp messages on your mobile phone. You stop to watch something on TV or you are distracted from reading to take a call. Time goes by and you barely get a moment to focus one hundred per cent on just one activity.

Mindfulness was created in 2003 as a means of bringing back the essence of life, as a specific way of focusing on the present, consciously and without judgement. It is a way of achieving full consciousness, a concept derived from Buddhist meditation that seeks greater contact with the feelings of “here” and “now” through techniques and relaxation exercises.

In recent years, mindfulness has become popular around the world. Institutions and hospitals are using this practice as a therapy to improve people’s ability to concentrate, reduce anxiety and stress and improve quality of life. Likewise, numerous scientific studies conducted by prestigious universities confirm the benefits of focused attention.

The ideal time for practising mindfulness is a moment when you know that nobody will interrupt you. Switch off your mobile phone and spend 10 minutes on yourself. Breathe deeply through your nose and mouth, trying to concentrate on your breathing and the feelings in your body, without trying to understand or judge them.

Benefits of complete focus

• It promotes calm

The relaxation brought by mindfulness reduces levels of cortisol, the well-known stress hormone, and encourages tranquillity, calm and peace.

• Improves intellectual performance

People who practice this type of meditation have better verbal reasoning skills and mnemonic skills (memorisation).

• It prevents mental illnesses

This practice is related with increased density of axons (prolongations of the neurons that transmit nerve impulses) and with increased myelin (layer of axons that speed up impulses).

• It helps to control pain and emotions

Focusing your attention gives the brain greater control over mood swings and suffering, because it controls cortical alpha rhythms, which are responsible for deciding on which senses we focus.

• Reduces cold symptoms

Research has shown that people who do mindfulness exercises experience less severe cold and flu symptoms, and they recover more quickly.

• Better quality rest

Meditation-type techniques, as well as helping you to relax and reduce anxiety, make it easier to fall asleep and improve sleep quality, because they improve emotional stability and release physical and psychological tension before going to bed.

The secret to mindfulness is to focus your attention fully on daily activities, such as walking, eating or working. As your consciousness grows, so will your clarity and well-being.

This post is also available in: Italian